Game Reviews: Mind Games, year 2006

These are Wei-Hwa Huang's personal reviews of games that might or might not have been submitted to the Mensa Mind Games event in 2006. (You'll have to go to that site to get the official list of submitted games, when they decide to post it.)

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, ratings, and reviews stated in this document and related webpages are the sole personal opinions of Wei-Hwa Huang and Wei-Hwa Huang alone. Wei-Hwa Huang does not speak for the more than 200 participants on the Mensa Mind Games selection panel. This is not an official site of Mensa Mind Games or Mensa Select, although the statements on which games are winners of Mensa Select are factually correct. Mensa Mind Games and Mensa Select are registered trademarks of American Mensa.

If you have any questions or concerns about my reviews and comments, please feel free to mail me.



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Party Games: Word-based
  • Baffle Gab (6;5;3)
  • Bonkers (6;6;4)
  • The Invention Game (6;6;7)
  • JabberJot (7;6;4)
  • Linq (6;8;6)
  • Nymble (6;5;4)
  • Questionary (8;8;5)
    Party Games: Artistic skill
  • Portrayal (5;7;9)
  • Sketchword (7;7;5)
    Party Games: A Variety of Tasks
  • Eve's Quest (8;6;3)
  • Evolution (6;7;6)
  • Fikloo: The Game of Crazy Commands (5;2;1)
  • Kiss My Rules! (2;3;2)
  • Quelf (9;7;8)
    Quiz Games
  • 800: The Game of Verbal Perfection (7;5;4)
  • Don't Quote Me - TIME for Kids Edition (9;6;5)
  • mental_floss: The Trivia Game (6;6;5)
  • Mind's I (4;4;3)
  • *Wits & Wagers (7;8;8)
  • You Must Be an Idiot! (9;9;9)
    "Roll Dice And Move" Games
  • Da Vinci Code Board Game (2;9;7)
  • Pairs or Better (4;1;2)
  • Tricky Town (5;8;6)
  • Urban Legends the Game (1;2;1)
  • Wreck the Nation: the Game of Political Misbehavior (1;2;1)
    Number and Math Games
  • Zeus on the Loose (8;8;7)
    Word and Language Games
  • Heximania (6;4;8)
  • Jot (6;4;3)
  • *Keesdrow (9;7;9)
  • Nerdy Wordy (6;4;5)
  • Pick Two Deluxe (7;6;3)
  • Sketchword (7;7;5)
  • Snatch (7;6;4)
  • Wordigy: A World of Words for Family Fun (3;1;1)
    Reflex and Reaction Games
  • Match of the Penguins (3;5;3)
  • Space Faces (4;7;6)
  • Thing-A-Ma-Bots (4;6;5)
  • Top Speed (6;7;5)
    Strategy Card Games
  • Da Vinci's Challenge Card Game (4;3;2)
  • It-Dah-Gan (7;8;5)
  • Pepper (9;7;5)
  • Poison (7;8;5)
    Strategy Dice Games
  • Cosmic Cows (5;5;4)
  • Pickomino (8;7;9)
    Family Strategy ("German") Games
  • Castle Keep (3;8;5)
    Abstract Strategy Games -- Pure Abstract
  • Byte (9;6;1)
  • Cephalopod (8;8;1)
  • *Deflexion (7;4;8)
  • Diffusion (9;7;1)
  • Dragon Chess (6;6;4)
  • *Hive (9;7;8)
  • Net Y (8;6;1)
  • Pacru 302 (7;6;6)
  • *Pentago (8;8;7)
  • Pünct (8;6;10)
  • Ringgz (5;3;2)
    Abstract Strategy Games -- Luck or Hidden Information
  • Darter (8;8;7)
    One Player Games
  • Gordian's Knot (2;5;10)
  • LonPos 101 Pyramid and Rectangle Game (4;6;9)
  • Regatta (2;9;9)
  • Summit (3;2;7)
    Games With Original Themes
  • Codebreaker (6;7;6)
  • Debate This! (7;3;3)
  • Debate This!

    (search on Board Game Geek)

    small pic of Debate This! small pic of Debate This! in play small pic of Debate This! in play small pic of Debate This! in play small pic of Debate This! in play

    • Replay Value (1-10): 7
    • Fun Factor (1-10): 3
    • Worth Buying (1-10): 3
    This game is focused on one thing: debate. There are cards that suggest what topic to debate on, blank sheets where you can write subjects to debate on, and some board with movement pawns and the like -- but really, the core of this game is about entering into a structured competitive debate with your opponents (and having a neutral player act as judge as to who won).

    I have never been a fan of debate, mostly because it is the art of persuasive argument that focuses on human emotional responses rather than logical (Socratic) arguments -- which means applying persuasive skills to apply to positions you may not even believe in. Perhaps not surprisingly, all the other players around me felt mostly the same way, and it was near impossible to give any sort of fair evaluation of this game.

    About all I can really say about this is that if you liked debate team in high school, or want some good practice at this skill that I have absolutely no interest in, you might want to check this game out. I'm certainly not qualified to write a decent review.


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    By Wei-Hwa Huang